MTV
is a cable television network headquartered in New
York City. Originally devoted to music videos, especially popular
music videos, MTV has since opted to show less music oriented
programming, and has became an outlet for a variety of different television
shows aimed at adolescents and young adults.

Broadcast
began on August 1, 1981 as an operation of Warner-Amex Satellite
Entertainment Company, a joint venture of Warner Communications and
American Express known as WASEC.

In
1984, Warner and Amex attempted to take some cash out of their WASEC
investment. The companies divested WASEC and it was renamed MTV Networks
Inc. The parent companies registered for a stock IPO, which eventually
went public at $15.00 per share. A year later, MTV saw the introduction
of a sister channel, VH-1, short for Video Hits One. In 1986, MTV
Networks Inc. was acquired by Viacom Inc., and was renamed MTV Networks,
still a division of Viacom today. By 1987, Viacom itself was the target
of a successful hostile takeover by National Amusements.

History

MTV
was created in 1977, when Warner-Amex Cable (a joint venture between
Warner Communications and American Express) launched the first two-way
interactive cable TV system, Qube, in Columbus, Ohio. The Qube system
offered many specialized channels, including a children's channel called
Pinwheel which would later become Nickelodeon. One of these
specialized channels was Sight On Sound, a music channel that
featured concert footage and music oriented TV programs; with the
interactive Qube service, viewers could vote for their favorite songs
and artists.

On
August 1, 1981, MTV: Music Television launched with a programming format
created by the visionary music producer, Bob Pittman (who later became
president and chief executive officer, of MTV Networks [1]).

A
previous venture, a TV series under the name PopClips, was created by
Pittman and former Monkee-turned solo artist Michael Nesmith, the latter
of whom by the late 1970's was turning his attention to the music video
format. A disagreement between Nesmith and Pittman over the show's
direction led Nesmith to relinquish control to Pittman soon after. [2]

The
channel went to air at 12:01 am with the words (by original COO John
Lack) "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll!" and the original
MTV theme song, a crunching guitar riff created by Jonathan Elias,
playing over a montage of the Apollo 11 moon landing (MTV producers used
this footage because it was in the public domain.) At the time of
launch, only a few thousand people on one cable system in northern New
Jersey could see it. Sporadically, the screen would go black when
someone at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR. [3]
Appropriately, the first music video shown on MTV was "Video Killed
the Radio Star" by The Buggles. The second video shown was Pat
Benatar's "You Better Run". With similar tongue-in-cheek
humor, the first video shown on MTV Europe was "Money for
Nothing," by Dire Straits, which starts and finishes with
repetition of the line "I want my MTV," voiced by Sting. On
MTV Latino, the first video shown was "We Are Southamerican
Rockers" by the Chilean band Los Prisioneros.

The
early format of the network was modeled after Top
40 radio. Fresh-faced young men and women were hired to host the
show's programming, and to introduce videos that were being played. The
term VJ (video jockey) was coined, a play on the acronym DJ
(disc jockey.) Many VJs eventually became celebrities in their own
right. The original five MTV VJs in 1981 were Nina Blackwood, Mark
Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson and Martha Quinn. In 2005, this group
(except for J.J. Jackson, who had died in 2004) was reunited as hosts on
Sirius Satellite Radio. Promotional spots featured animated MTV logos
created by numerous animation studios, including work by such artists as
Steve Fiorilla and Ken Brown.

The
early music videos that made up the bulk of the network's programming in
the '80s were often crude promotional or concert clips from whatever
sources could be found; as the popularity of the network rose, and
record companies recognized the potential of the medium as a tool to
gain recognition and publicity, they began to create increasingly
elaborate clips specifically for the network. Several noted film
directors got their start creating music videos, including Spike Jonze,
Michel Gondry, and David Fincher.

A
large number of rock bands and performers of the 1980s and 1990s were
made into household names by MTV. 1980s acts immediately identifiable
with MTV include Van Halen, The Police, The Cars, Eurythmics, RATT,
Culture Club, Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Bon Jovi, and "Weird
Al" Yankovic, who made a career out of parodying other artists
videos. Many of the more successful musicians featured on MTV could
frequently be seen doing station identification spots for the network,
exclaiming the signature line, "I want my MTV!!" The heavy
rock band KISS publicly appeared without their trademark makeup for the
first time on MTV in 1983. Michael Jackson launched the second wave of
his career as an MTV staple. Madonna rose to fame on MTV in the 1980s.
Madonna is the most successful video performer in MTV history, and to
this day she uses MTV to market her music.

In
1984 the network produced its first MTV Video Music Awards show.
Seen as a fit of self-indulgence by a fledgling network at the time, the
"VMAs" developed into a music-industry showcase marketed as a hip
antidote to the Grammy
awards. In 1992, the network would add a movie award show with similar
success.

After
MTV's programming shifted towards heavy metal and rap music, MTV
Networks launched a second network, Video Hits 1 (VH-1), in 1985. VH1
featured more popular music than MTV. Today, MTV Networks also owns
Nickelodeon, a cable channel airing children's and family programming.

MTV
started off showing music videos nearly full-time, but as time passed
they introduced a variety of other shows. Many of these shows were
originally intended for such channels such as the Disney Channel,
Discovery Channel, Spike, and Fox Reality. The new genres include
animated cartoons such as Beavis and Butt-head and Daria;
reality shows such as The Real World and Road Rules;
prank/comedic shows such as The Tom Green Show, Jackass,
and Punk'd; and soap operas such as Undressed. By the
second half of the 1990s, MTV programming consisted primarily of
non-music programming. In 2000, MTV's Fear became the first
'scary' reality show where contestants filmed themselves. The show ran
for three seasons and spawned numerous imitations, including the
currently running Fear Factor on NBC. In 2002, MTV aired the
first episode of another reality show, The Osbournes, based on
the everyday life of former, Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, his
wife Sharon, and two of their children, Jack and Kelly. The show went on
to become one of the network's biggest ever success stories and
kick-started a musical career for Kelly Osbourne, while Sharon Osbourne
went on to host a talk show on U.S. television. In 2003, Newlyweds,
another popular reality TV show that follows the lives of Jessica
Simpson and Nick Lachey, a music celebrity couple, began airing. It ran
for three seasons and was ended after Jessica and Nick divorced. The
success of Newlyweds was followed in June 2004 by The Ashlee
Simpson Show, which documented the beginnings of the music career of
Ashlee Simpson, Jessica Simpson's younger sister. In the fall of 2004,
Ozzy Osbourne's reality show Battle for Ozzfest aired.

In
2004, MTV's parent company Viacom bought Germany's largest provider for
music television Viva Media AG, thereby creating the largest company for
music on the European mainland. In November 2004, MTV announced it would
begin airing MTV Base in Africa from February 2005, [4]
thereby reaching the world's last major populated area previously not
served by MTV.

In
2006, MTV plans to launch MTV Ukraine, to pursue the emerging music
market. There are also plans to launch services in the Baltic states
with MTV Estonia, MTV Latvia and MTV Lithuania. There are also plans to
launch a Turkish
service, MTV Türkiye around this time.

In
June 2006, MTV announced the creation of MTV K, the first music and
pop-culture destination for young Korean-Americans. The channel will
import the hottest and latest superstars from Korea, artists like BoA,
Rain, and Se7en and will introduce new and emerging Korean-American
artists making noise of their own. This will provide a chance for Korean
and Korean-American artists alike to gain U.S. exposure.

On
August 1, 2006, MTV celebrated its 25th anniversary. On their broadband
video channel, MTV Overdrive, MTV executives let people view the very
first hour of MTV, including airing the original promos and commercials
from Mountain Dew, Atari, Chewels gum, and Jovan. Videos were also shown
from The Buggles, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, and more, and even the
introduction of the first five original VJs (Alan Hunter, Martha Quinn,
J.J. Jackson, Nina Blackwood, and Mark Goodson. Also mtv.com put
together a "yearbook" consisting of the best videos of each
year from the early age of MTV of 1981 to the current videos of 2006.

Diversification

The
advent of digital satellite and cable has brought greater channel
diversity including channels such as MTV2, which features the slogan
"Where The Music's At." In the U.S., MTV2 initially focused on
playing music videos and other music-related programming exclusively; in
Europe, MTV2 plays specific genres of music (mainly alternative and
rock). Viacom, parent company of the MTV Networks, is also behind VH1,
which is aimed at celebrity and popular culture programming; and CMT,
which targets the country music market. Robert Bartz is CEO of MTV
enterprises. MTV recently broadcast a University-oriented channel mtvU.

MHD
— Music: High Definition is a high definition channel that MTV
Networks launched on January 16, 2006. Originating from a studio in
Vail, Colorado, MHD features programming from all three music-themed
channels owned by MTV Networks — MTV, VH1 and CMT.
Thusfar, only Verizon's FiOS TV , Comcast, and Cox Cable have agreed to
carry the channel. Cox systems carrying MHD as of March 2006 include
Atlanta, New Orleans, Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Phoenix with Boston
getting MHD through Comcast. In June 2006, Cox began carrying MHD in the
Fairfax market. Mitsubishi Electric Digital Televisions (http://www.mitsubishielectric.com/tv)
is the exclusive sponsor of MHD.

MTV.com,
the website of the channel, expands on its broadcasts by bringing
additional content to its viewers. Its notable features include its
podcasts, including MTV News RAW, which interviews various musical
artists; MTV Overdrive, a video steaming service supported by
commercials. Additionally there are movie features, profiles and
interviews with recording artists and even clips from MTV television
programs.

MTV
World

MTV
World launched a series of channels for Asian Americans. The first
channel was MTV Desi, in July of 2005 dedicated towards South Asian
American. Next up was MTV Chi in December of 2005 which catered to
Chinese Americans. The third installment is MTV K for Korean Americans
which was launched on June 27, 2006. Each of these channels feature
music videos and shows from MTV's international affiliates as well as
original programming, promos and packaging designed in the U.S.

CRITICISM

Racial
discrimination

In
its early years, MTV was criticized for being discriminatory, since the
acts it featured were nearly exclusively white. MTV executives countered
by claiming that there were few—if any—promotional videos available
from black and other minority acts, although artists such as Diana Ross
and The Jacksons had been making music videos before MTV existed.

Some
critics from 1981 to 1985 complained that the channel frequently aired
videos by Hall & Oates - a white act with Motown and Philly soul
influences, and heavy airplay on black radio—but not the black artists
with whom they shared the R&B and dance charts.

Shortly
thereafter, the network began heavily featuring videos from Michael
Jackson's album Thriller, in particular "Billie Jean"
and "Thriller", and Prince's album 1999, in particular
the videos for the title track and "Little Red Corvette".
Later, sister channel VH1 (introduced in 1985) would specialize in heavy
rotation of black acts as part of its format.

Subsequently,
MTV delved heavily into black musical acts, developing several hip-hop
music-themed programs such as Yo! MTV Raps, and got rid of MTV X
to make room for MTV Jams, in part because many young African Americans
would rather watch BET than MTV.

In
2006, fans of R&B singer Janet Jackson started a petition against
MTV for blacklisting the video for her single "Call on Me". It
was reported that the channel refused to play the video due to continued
disagreements between themselves and Jackson over the 2004 Super Bowl
incident.

Commercialism

Because
of its visibility as a promotional tool for the recording industry, MTV
has been criticized as overly commercial and accused of denigrating the
importance of music in the music industry (replacing it with a purely
visual aesthetic); putting equally popular but less image-centric or
single-based acts at a distinct disadvantage. As early as 1985, some
musicians were criticizing MTV for these reasons, perhaps most famously
Dead Kennedys with the song "MTV − Get off the Air" in
the album Frankenchrist.

Airtime
for music videos

Recently,
MTV have put a stronger focus on reality shows such as Road Rules,
The Real World, Laguna Beach, and others as well. The
primary U.S. MTV channel does occasionally play music videos (albeit
rarely) instead of exclusively relegating them to their genre channels.

Critics
also claim that bands sell well because they get a lot of exposure on
MTV, rather than MTV picking the best bands to promote; and that MTV has
too much influence in the music industry. Although it could be argued
that MTV is simply giving airtime to the most popular acts in a given
country, the counter-argument could also be made that these acts get
popular simply because of the exposure that MTV gives them.

Moral
influence

There
have been some critics who have said that MTV promotes bad behavior
(mainly premarital sex, violence, and recreational drug use) to the
youth of America by embracing the behaviors of certain celebrities who
are not good role models. Critics have said that MTV was like
"pornography for children."[5]

Since
the early 1990's, MTV began to edit and rewrite its' programs on moral
behaviors to influence their audience. Characters, for example, must not
exhibit underage drinking, to promote regular school attendance, to
support environmental issues, and on "coolness" on being
"socially responsible" for youth to take part in volunteer
work in their community.

There
are also critics of MTV and their reality shows such as NEXT, the game
dating show that involves making the daters complete various tasks and
games to avoid being "Nexted" on the basis of looks. In the
summer of 2005, MTV has began to examine their programming on the
depiction of women, after women's rights groups criticized MTV was
allowing misogyny in images and music videos.

The
channel also faced criticism in the wake of the Super Bowl XXXVIII half
time show — which it had produced. This infamous halftime show
featured the partial exposure of one of Janet Jackson's breasts, which
was shown on live television. Afterwards the NFL indicated that MTV
would not produce any further Super Bowl halftime shows, or any public
event.

Politics
and censorship

MTV
has also come under criticism for being far too politically correct and
sensitive when it came to censorship. This was most prevalent in the
eventual decline of the hit show Jackass. The creators of Jackass
often felt that MTV's producers did not let the show run its free course
due to the excessive restraints placed on the Jackass team. MTV's
influence also affected its famous animated program, Beavis and
Butt-Head. In the wake of controversy that followed a child burning
down his house after allegedly watching the show, producers moved the
show from its original 7 PM time slot to a late-night, 11 PM slot. Also,
Beavis was no longer shown flicking a lighter and screaming the word
"fire" in subsequent episodes.

MTV
has also heavily edited a number of music videos to remove references to
drugs, sex, or weapons. Edits include, but are not limited to:

Music
Videos

Before
1987, MTV featured almost exclusively music videos. Non-music video
programming began in the late '80s with the introduction of "The
Week in Rock," "Club MTV" and "Remote Control."

Political
influence

After
so many shots to the network about the content of programmes, MTV
started airing a plethora of political and economic shows. These shows
included: "think MTV," which discusses current political
issues such as gay marriage, the 2004 U.S. presidential election, and
war in other countries, among other topics. The slogan of the program is
Reflect. Decide. Do. MTV aired a popular band's Sum 41 trip to the
Democratic Republic of Congo, documenting the conflict there. The group
ended up being caught in the midst of an attack outside of the hotel and
were subsequently flown out of the country (Rocked: Sum 41 in Congo). In
1992 MTV started a pro-democracy campaign called "Choose Or
Lose", to encourage up to 25 million people to register to vote,
and hosted a town hall forum for Bill Clinton.

Other
politically diverse programs include True Life, which documents people's
lives and problems, and shows an epilogue of after the show was shot
(True Life); MTV News Specials, which centers on very current events in
both the music industry and the world; and a lot of other shows based on
the current times. It covered the 2004 U.S. Presidential election,
airing programs focused on the issues and opinions of young people,
including a program where viewers could ask questions of Senator John
Kerry on live TV (Sherman). MTV worked with P. Diddy's "Vote or
Die" campaign, designed to encourage young people to vote.
Allegedly, P. Diddy did not vote in the 2004 election (Vargas).

In
the 1990's and early 2000s, MTV promoted annual campaigns "Fight
For Your Rights" and "Speak Out/Stand Up Against
Violence" to bring forth awareness on America's crime, drugs and
violence issues. On April 6, 2001; the only time in MTV's history the
network ceased regular programming for 24 hours as part of the year's
Hate Crimes awareness campaign. On that night, MTV aired a made-for-TV
movie Anatomy of a Hate Crime, based on a true story of the 1999
murder of 21-year old Matthew Shepherd, a gay college student in the
town of Laramie, Wyoming.

Cartoons

MTV
has a history of cartoons with mature themes, notably Beavis and
Butt-head, and its spin-off, Daria. Few of MTV's other
cartoons have been renewed for additional seasons, regardless of their
reception.

Slogans

"You'll
never look at music the same way again" (The first
slogan; appeared on the original blue MTV shirt.)

"I
want my MTV!" (Originally intended as a promotional tool
encouraging subscribers to ask their cable providers to add the MTV
network; later became the iconic slogan for MTV for more than a
decade.)

"The
Number One Music Channel" (slogan used for MTV UK from 2000 to
2002. As the channel broadcasts on digital cable and satellite, the
slogan was discontinued in 2003. The decline in music related
programming on MTV may have also played a part as to why this slogan
was dropped.)